Customer Reviews

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Here's one thing I can infer with some certainty: Stephen Bayley is a more charming dinner companion than I. He's a great story-teller, and uses that gift to great effect. He never lets an assertion or the demonstration of a point go by without a telling anecdote to go along with it. He's also got some courage: this book ranges far and wide, over terrain you'd need six or eight academics to cover authoritatively. That said, there are a few moments that make me wonder about the accuracy of his book. When he wanders into areas that I know about professionally (the philosophy of Hume or the poetry of Keats, say, both of which I teach) he's bright and clear and amusing, but only about 90% right. It would be asking a great deal of Bayley if we were to demand that he combine the skills of experts in many areas with the skills of a real raconteur, and in his foreword Bayley admits that there are moments in the book when he lapses into facetiousness. Still, he's done something of real value in writing a witty, readable book on such a nebulous topic. If you take this book as an introduction to the topic, rather than as the final word, you'll be quite pleased, I think.

Everyone should read this book, to agree or disagree with Bayley doesn't matter, it is simply a broadly interesting and highly entertaining compendium of amazing bits of information.

Ah. It's great to read a book that makes some red faces out of the monied up consumer.